National Post (National Edition)
Marner having growing pains
LEAFS ROOKIE
TORONTO • There are days when Mike Babcock feels like he’s the proud papa of seven NHL rookies and by extension a young squad of mid-1990s birthdates that seems mature beyond its years.
But the coach of the Maple Leafs also has to dish out tough love sometimes, whether the kids need it or not. William Nylander has been subjected to that a couple of times recently, responding over the weekend with two strong games and elevation from fourth-line purgatory. Defenceman Connor Carrick found himself in the press box recently, but came out Sunday looking regenerated.
No. 1 overall pick Auston Matthews was not chastised, at least publicly, during his 13-game goalless streak and has been trying to work on defence, while keeping pace to tie for the team lead of 12 goals with veteran James van Riemsdyk.
On Sunday, Babcock thought it was time to give right-winger Mitch Marner a wake-up call. Though he has been part of this year’s exciting offensive push and made the off-season commitment Babcock demanded so as not be buried in a big man’s NHL, something was amiss the past few games, in the coach’s opinion.
That’s why Marner found himself playing the early part of the game against Colorado on the fourth line with Matt Martin and Ben Smith. Marner came into Sunday with no points in his previous five games and perhaps a little less impact on his regular high-profile routing with van Riemsdyk and centre Tyler Bozak.
“I’ve just been watching the games,” Babcock deadpanned when asked about his Marner move. “I think there has been a message (from the coaching staff) going on for a bit.
“That’s just the process of growing up in the National Hockey League. It doesn’t go your way all the time in practice, in games. You have to work hard every single day. I don’t know if I saw a response (in his 16:32 of ice time Sunday). I just thought it was the right thing to do.”
Observers are always expecting young talents such as Marner and Matthews to hit the proverbial wall around this time as the realities of the NHL schedule and travel catch up. But if there was a significant drop in Marner’s play, the masses following the Leafs from the press box, the ACC seats and the bar stools had not picked up on it.
Marner gained instant popularity with hardly any of the nitpicking that has dogged Nylander. So Babcock’s machinations and comments might have been calculated to nip any perceived overconfidence by Marner in its early stages.
Marner was moved back up in the second period and kept prominent on the Leafs’ power play. During a 6-on-4 man advantage with Toronto down 2-0, he got the second assist on Jake Gardiner’s goal and did his best to help tie it in the final frantic seconds. Unfortunately, his cross-ice pass was picked off for the empty netter, one of two giveaways he was charged with.
“We just switched things up today,” said Marner, brushing off his first-period demotion. “I think anyone in our lineup is fun to play with. We all have a lot of skill in here and I think me, Marty and Smitty did a pretty good job in the first and created some stuff down low.”
The Leafs took Monday off and will resume a five-game homestand Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks.